Updated at 7:05 a.m. ET: Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon on Saturday at a crowd of up to 25,000 protesters who had converged on the center of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to demand changes to an electoral system.

Demonstrators also battled with police at a train station nearby, throwing bottles at officers who responded by firing tear gas rounds. 

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Thousands who had been confronting police outside the city's historic Merdeka Square were scattered after riot police fired water cannon and then at least 10 rounds of tear gas into the crowd. The police said they had been forced to react after protesters tried to force their way through barriers and enter the square. 

The violence could carry political risks for Prime Minister Najib Razak if it is seen as unjustified, possibly forcing him to delay elections that must be called by next March but which could be held as early as June. Najib's approval rating tumbled after July last year when police were accused of a heavy handed response to the last major electoral reform rally by the Bersih (Clean) group. 

"They asked the crowd to disperse but did not give enough warning," said Aminah Bakri, 27, with tears streaming down her face from the tear gas exposure. 

Police shut down much of the city center and enforced a court order that the protesters should not enter the symbolically important Merdeka Square.

The Bersih (Clean) group that is leading the protest earlier said it would obey the ban but will march as close as possible to the square, raising the possibility of a repeat of violent clashes that marred Bersih's last major protest in July 2011.

Protesters posted on Twitter claiming to have been hit by the tear gas. 

Photojournalist Jason Lioh posted: "1st hand experience of tear gas. Cried my eyes out & nearly puked myself out. Skins are stinging. Took salt and it helped. #Bersih"

"Now it looks like we will have to fight for our right to gather at Merdeka Square as well as fight for free and fair elections," said Muhammed Hafiz, a 28-year-old store clerk who was preparing to join the protest.

Organizers hoped the protest will draw 100,000 people, including thousands demonstrating against a controversial rare earths plant being built by Australian firm Lynas on the country's east coast. That would make it the biggest protest since the "Reformasi" (Reform) demonstrations in 1998 against then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

A police official estimated the protesters numbered 15,000 to 20,000 by midday with just one arrest reported.

The protest is a delicate challenge for the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, possibly affecting the timing of elections that he is preparing to call as early as June.

Najib must be mindful of conservatives in his party who are wary that his moves to relax tough security laws and push limited election reforms could threaten their 55-year hold on power.

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Last July's rally, more than 10,000-strong, ended in violence when police fired tear gas and water cannons at the yellow-shirted protesters, drawing criticism of a heavy-handed response and sending Najib's popularity sliding. His approval rating has since rebounded to 69 percent, according to one poll.

Police helicopters buzzed overhead on Saturday morning as protesters gathered. Reuters correspondents saw about 200 riot police stationed in the square and five water cannons heading to the site where Malaysia declared independence from Britain.

Bersih, an independent movement whose goals are backed by the opposition, has a history of staging influential rallies as Malaysians have demanded more freedoms and democratic rights in the former British colony that has an authoritarian streak.

The National Front is trying to recover from its worst ever election result in 2008 when it lost its two-thirds majority in parliament, giving the diverse, three-party opposition led by former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim real hope of taking power.

Najib has replaced tough security laws - ending indefinite detention without trial - relaxed some media controls, and pushed reforms to the electoral system that critics have long complained is rigged in the government's favor. A bipartisan parliamentary committee set up by Najib this month issued 22 proposals for electoral reform, including steps to clean up electoral rolls and equal access to media.

However, the government gave no guarantee that any of the steps will be in place for the next election. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Pakistan successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Wednesday, the military said, less than a week after rival India tested a missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads as far as Beijing and Eastern Europe.

Pakistan's Shaheen-1A is an intermediate range ballistic missile, capable of reaching targets in India. A defense official told NBC News that it had a range of about 1500 km (932 miles).

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The missile's impact point was in the Indian Ocean. The defense official told NBC News that it had "hit a target in the sea."

The New York Times reported on Thursday that India’s launch of its own Agni 5 ballistic missile, capable of reaching Beijing and Shanghai, gained it entry to the small club of nations with long-range nuclear capability, including China, Britain, France, Russia, Israel and the United States.

It said the successful test of the weapon – dubbed the "China Killer" by India’s media -- marked the latest escalation of an arms race in Asia, where the assertiveness and rising military power of China has rattled the region and prompted a forceful response from the Obama administration.

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India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since they were carved out of British India as independent nations in 1947.

They conduct missile tests regularly and inform each other in advance.

Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998, shortly after India conducted similar tests. U.S. intelligence estimates last year put the number of nuclear weapons deployed by Pakistan at 90 to 110.

Analysts say the strategic U.S. ally's nuclear arsenal is the fastest-growing in the world. Pakistan, like neighboring India, is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

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News website dawn.com said Pakistan’s arsenal includes short, medium and long range missiles named after Muslim conquerors.

It said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists working on the program over the success of the missile test.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Updated at 3:45 a.m. ET: India test-fired a nuclear-capable, long-range missile capable of reaching deep inside China and Europe Thursday, television stations showed, putting the emerging Asian power into an elite club of nations with intercontinental nuclear defense capabilities.

A scientist at the launch site said the launch was successful, minutes after television images showed the rocket blasting through clouds from an island off India's east coast.

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Footage showed the rocket, with a range of more than 3,100 miles, blasting through clouds from an island off India's east coast. The defense minister said the test was "immaculate." 

 

"Today's launch represents another milestone in our quest for our security, preparedness and to explore the frontiers of science," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a congratulatory message to the scientists who developed the rocket. 

The Agni-V missile is expected to become fully operational as early as 2014 after several more tests, The Times of India reported. It has a range of more than 3,100 miles, according to a BBC report.

Named after Hindu god of fire
The LA Times reported that the 50-ton, 55-foot three-stage rocket is named after the Hindu god of fire.  However, it said the missile had been dubbed the "China killer" by the Indian press.  

The launch, which was flagged well in advance, has attracted none of the criticism from the West faced by hermit state North Korea for a failed bid to send up a similar rocket last week.

But China noted the launch with disapproval.

"The West chooses to overlook India's disregard of nuclear and missile control treaties,'' China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial published before the launch, which was delayed a day due to bad weather at the test site.

"India should not overestimate its strength,'' said the paper, which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party's main mouthpiece the People's Daily.

Fast emerging as a world economic power, India is keen to play a larger role on the global stage and has long angled for a permanent seat on the Security Council. In recent years it has emerged as the world's top arms importer as it upgrades equipment for a large but outdated military. 

"It is one of the ways of signaling India's arrival on the global stage, that India deserves to be sitting at the high table," Harsh Pant, a defense expert at King's College, London, said, describing the launch as a "confidence boost." 

NATO said on Wednesday it did not consider India a threat. The U.S. State Department said India's non-proliferation record was "solid,'' while urging restraint. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent 15 years under house arrest in Myanmar, won a seat in the country's lower house of parliament on Sunday, her party said.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party announced at its headquarters that the campaigner had won in Kawhmu, south of the commercial capital Yangon.

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"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has won. The NLD candidate has taken the Kawhmu constituency," an NLD official announced to cheers from hundreds of supporters, referring to Suu Kyi by her honorific title.

Suu Kyi, who has spent a total of 15 years in detention since 1989, was contesting an election for the first time following her party's decision to end its boycott of a political system dominated by serving or retired military.

The by-elections - only the country's third in half a century - are a crucial test of reforms that could convince the West to end sanctions and its pariah image.

The United States and European Union have hinted that some sanctions - imposed over the past two decades in response to human rights abuses - may be lifted if the election is free and fair, unleashing a wave of investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country bordering rising powers India and China.

The charismatic and wildly popular Suu Kyi, complained last week of "irregularities", though none significant enough to derail her party's bid for 44 of the 45 available by-election seats.

The BBC reported that the NLD has taken no part in the country's political process since 1990, when it won a landslide victory in a general election but the military refused to accept the result.

From dawn, voters quietly filed into makeshift polling stations at schools, religious centres and community buildings, some gushing with excitement after casting ballots for the frail Suu Kyi, or "Aunty Suu" as she is affectionately known.

"My whole family voted for her and I am sure all relatives and friends of us will vote for her too," said Naw Ohn Kyi, 59, a farmer from Warthinkha.

In Suu Kyi's rustic constituency of bamboo-thatched homes in Kawhmu, south of the biggest city Yangon, she looked poised for a landslide win. "So far as my friends and I have checked, almost everyone we asked voted for Aunty Suu," said Ko Myint Aung, 27-year shop owner from Kawhmu.

Ko Myint Aung was one of 15 constituents contacted by Reuters, who all said they had voted for Suu Kyi.

To be regarded as credible, the vote needs the blessing of Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest in November 2010, six days after a widely criticised general election that paved the way for the end of 49 years of direct army rule and the opening of a parliament stacked with retired and serving military.

President Thein Sein, a general in the former military junta, has surprised the world with the most dramatic political reforms since the military took power in a 1962 coup in the former British colony then known as Burma.

In the span of a year, the government has freed hundreds of political prisoners, held peace talks with ethnic rebels, relaxed strict media censorship, allowed trade unions, and showed signs of pulling back from the powerful economic and political orbit of its giant neighbor China.

It was rewarded last November when Hillary Clinton made the first visit to the country by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955. Business executives, mostly from Asia but many from Europe, have swarmed to Yangon in recent weeks to hunt for investment opportunities in the country of 60 million people, one of the last frontier markets in Asia.

Voting stations opened at 6 a.m. (2330 GMT), some under the watch of small numbers of observers from the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who were given only a few days to prepare inside Myanmar. Some said they considered themselves "election watchers" rather than observers.

The last election, in November 2010, was widely seen as rigged to favour the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the biggest in parliament. The NLD boycotted the vote.

"The day isn't over yet, but perhaps this is the first really authentic election held in this country for some time," said Robert Cooper, a long-time friend of Suu Kyi and counselor to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"The pace of change has been breathtaking," he told Reuters while touring polling stations north of Yangon.

But the election has not gone smoothly. Suu Kyi has suffered from ill health and accused rivals of vandalising NLD posters, padding electoral registers and "many cases of intimidation."

Some of these infractions, however, have been quite minor and are typical of elections across Southeast Asia, where vote-buying and even assassinations are commonplace.

The NLD on Friday said a betel nut had been fired by catapult at one of its candidates and a stack of hay had been set on fire close to where another was due to give a speech.

It made fresh claims of irregularities on Sunday and said some ballots papers had been covered in wax to make it tricky to write on. It accused the USDP of waiting outside some polling stations and telling voters to back their party.

Sceptics in the democracy movement say Suu Kyi is working too closely with a government stacked with the same former generals who persecuted dissidents, fearing she is being exploited to convince the West to end sanctions and make the legislature appear effective. Others have almost impossibly high hopes for her to accelerate reforms once she enters parliament.

Some U.S. restrictions such as visa bans and asset freezes could be lifted quickly if the election goes smoothly, diplomats say, while the EU may end its ban on investment in timber and the mining of gemstones and metals.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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